Rossbach was still fresh--mistrustful of French skill, to nominate him generalissimo of the troops of the republic, conspired with the incessant entreaties of the emigrants to reanimate his courage; and he finally declared that, followed by the famous troops of the great Frederick, he would put a speedy termination to the French Revolution. Leopold II. was, as brother to Marie Antoinette, greatly embittered against the French. The disinclination of the Austrians to the reforms of Joseph II. appears to have chiefly confirmed him in the conviction of finding a sure support in the old system. He consequently strictly prohibited the slightest innovation and placed a power hitherto unknown in the hands of the police, more particularly in those of its secret functionaries, who listened to every word and consigned the suspected to the oblivion of a dungeon. This mute terrorism found many a victim. This system was, on the death of Leopold II., A.D. 1792,[2] publicly abolished by his son and successor, Francis II., but was ere long again carried on in secret. Catherine II., with the view of seizing the rest of Poland, employed every art in order to instigate Austria and Prussia to a war with France, and by these means fully to occupy them in the West. The Prussian king, although aware of her projects, deemed the French an easy conquest, and that in case of necessity his armies could without difficulty be thrown into Poland. He meanwhile secured the popular feeling in Poland in his favor by concluding, A.D. 1790, an alliance with Stanislaus and giving his consent to the improved constitution established in Poland, A.D. 1791. Herzberg had even counselled an alliance with France and Poland, the latter was to be bribed with a promise of the annexation of Galicia, against Austria and Russia; this plan was, however, merely whispered about for the purpose of blinding the Poles and of alarming Russia.